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The Nine Stupidities
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Indiscretion
Thievery
Lust
Humiliation
Vengeance
Masochism
Skepticism
Indiscretion is the art of saying what you mean and meaning what you say. However, it is not merely this, but saying it at such an inconvenient time that is upsets other people. Truth hurts. There are facts and matters that are better left simply unspoken about, or given vague answers to, even lies, in order that we might better get along. The most infamous story of indiscretion in Wograld involves the well hated tyrant who ran about naked in the streets one day, while everyone pretended that he was well dressed, except for one small child. The child said "Hey that man has no clothing on." Then, once that was said, everyone laughed. Then the tyrant immediately had the child's family beheaded in the town square. The child had to grow up knowing that his ineptitude caused the tyrant to behead his parents and sister.
Thievery, if ever there was to be one of the stupidities that I whole heartily disapprove of, this would be the one, yet even thievery has its uses. In desperate times such as when we were ruled by the tyrant, thievery is a necessity of survival. Today however, bad habits die hard. When all purchases were taxed 110%, it made sense to simply steal the item rather than go through the legal methodology that would have eventually caused even a modestly wealthy person with less than nothing. these with everyone out for themselves, one must be careful to see that the necessary resources for survival are available to one selves, thus becoming a necessary evil. Yet in most uses of the word, it becomes a take what you want philosophy of greed and deceit, causing the breakdown of society. One can not rest knowing that even the useless items you have collected may be stolen from you at any time purely for the value that the thieve knows you will be upset to see them missing.
Lust is passion without the necessity or reciprocity or purpose. It can apply to things as well as people. Sometimes, under the tyrant, life began to lack meaning and purpose, since almost anything you did could get you into trouble with the laws and the tyrants. With lust, the reason for existence became irrational. Desire for forbidden lovers and forbidden goods abounded. Yet it was this unobtainable itself that made the objects of lust so desirable. The child became a youth, and was arranged to be married to a girl not to his liking, but he always preferred another, who never gave any indication of returning the favor. He wanted to give her a golden rose from the garden of the tyrant, but did not dare. These thoughts consumed him, filled him with such passion and pleasure, although he did not act on them. The objects of lust became a center of charismatic power, an easy point of manipulation to an otherwise impenetrable fortress of logic. Lust is a want to be satisfied, often to the determent of the creature who has fallen in love in this manner.
Humiliation is the art of humiliating the self and those around you. The foolish youth, not understanding the difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law, would often get the local tyrant involved in petty disputes, causing an excuse for the loss of property on both sides. Playing the fool is easy, but frequent actions in this manner make one suspect. One is accused of wanting attention for no reason other than to get attention, and having no other purpose besides. People are embarrassed to be seen along side you, for fear the urge will strike you again, and they will somehow have to apologize and clean up your mess.
Vengeance is the art of doing unto others what they have done unto you, but normally refers to the negative things. When the tyrant ruled, the anger of the populace became bottled up inside, causing some of them to fall into a deep depression. But the fools saved the vengeance up, and often took it out on the creatures inhabiting the dungeon vengeance. Although initially it was supposed to be directed at the person or institution that had done wrong, it came to mean taking out the aggression on anything and everything that happened to slight one in some small way. The fury unleashed when the fools attacked the tyrant and his personal guard restored much life to the world.
Masochism or the art of plowing through a task until it is done, no matter how hard or unrewarding it may seem. Of all the dungeons, Masochism seems to offer the most effort for the least reward. Yet, because of this, bandits and thieves are less likely to be found with in it, making it relatively safe for fools and newbies. During the reign of the tyrant, life itself often seemed like such a task, since many pleasurable things were so strictly limited. But perhaps there is a reward for all this tedious agony, then again perhaps not, but the causing of oneself to endure the pain of it merits much self-respect, deserved or undeserved. If we are not careful, our whole lives become masochistic in hopes that if we plow through enough of the masochistic activities, there will be a reward at the end. Well, what if there is no reward! Then we will have spent all that time on stuff we hate for nothing, leading masochism to be, one of the stupidest of the stupidities. However some people actually find masochistic tasks to be fun, leading other people to wonder how they can stand doing them.
Skepticism, the art of doubt, brings to mind visions of a sort of anti-belief, but it is not certainty about anything at all, it is rather the doubt in what we see and hear that lead us to this stupidity. If someone shows you some really awesome piece of equipment, sometimes there is doubt that it exists at all. Sometimes a person meets a lover, and wonders how it can be that such a soul mate can exist at all. Skeptics doubt that bad as well as the good, however. For instance, if you just got repeatedly stolen from and
assaulted outside of town, there is the skepticism that it will happen again in spite of the many times it has happened already. The paranoid conspiracy theories of your tired out and drunk friends also are seen in the light of the fact that people lose all sense and make things up, and even if a lot of people come to the same model of how the world works, it could be, and probably is very well wrong.
